Pan's Classic Crime series is showcasing some absolutely cherishable
titles, some of which have a distinguished reputation that makes
one marvel at the fact that they've ever been allowed to go out
of print. But are they as good as their reputations, or has memory
lent enchantment? This most famous of Poet Laureate's C D Lewis'
thrillers (written under his nom de plume of Nicholas Blake)
still reads in the 1990s as one of the most compelling crime novels
ever written. Famously filmed by Chabrol, the plot involves a
detective fiction writer who plots a perfect murder, one that
he himself will commit. When a personal tragedy destroys writer
Frank Cairnes' life, his tracking down of the man responsible
achieves a pathological intensity. But the final confrontation
is not what the reader expects. With Blake's famous investigator
Nigel Strangeways on hand, the sheer pleasure afforded by this
book is guaranteed.
